1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an endoscope system for diagnosing and remedying disease by inserting an endoscope into a body cavity of a patient, and more specifically to an endoscope system by which the endoscope can be inserted deep into a body cavity without use of any sliding guide pipe.
2. Background Art
In general, an endoscope system or an electronic endoscope system, for instance is roughly composed of a monitor section for displaylng endoscope images, a main frame unit provided with various operation switches, and an endoscope section inserted into a body cavity of a patient.
The endoscope section is composed of a flexible pipe and an operation base portion. The flexible pipe is formed into such a structure that a metallic helical pipe is covered with a metallic mesh-shaped braid and further the outer circumference of the mesh-shaped braid is covered with an outer cover. The flexibility of the flexible pipe is determined relatively low near the end thereof (extending from the end to a position about 30 to 40 cm away from the end), but relatively high in the remaining portion. Further, the flexibility of the flexible pipe is regulated by adjusting the pitch of the helical pipe and the elastomer hardness of the outer cover during the manufacturing process.
In the above-mentioned endoscope system, however, when the endoscope is required to be inserted further deep from the curved portion of the E-shaped colon of the large intestine, there exists the case where the endoscope cannot be inserted thereinto. This is because it is impossible to change freely the partial flexibility of the endoscope. To overcome the above-mentioned problem, the curved portion of the S-shaped colon has been so far deformed into a straight line with the use of a guide pipe, so that the endoscope can be inserted being guided along and through the guide pipe.
In the conventional endoscope system as described above, however, since the guide pipe is used before the endoscope is inserted further deep from the curved portion of the S-shaped colon, there exists a danger of occurrence of an accident such that the wall of the intestine is pinched between the endoscope and the guide pipe and thereby injured and bled. Consequently, when the guide pipe is used, it has been so far necessary to watch the fluoroscopic images of the endoscope and the guide pipe taken by an X-ray camera, for instance, thus causing a problem in that the examination is troublesome and further a long diagnosis or remedy time is required.